Vanilla Coconut Cupcake

Vanilla Coconut Cupcake
Originally uploaded by L.TON

Ah, what can I say? I love cupcakes. We all know that.

We had a little pot luck with the graduate council that was themed international. Logic states that I should have made something Vietnamese, but whatever, I like making cupcakes. I haven't had time to concoct red bean, mung bean, whatever bean with coconut cupcakes possibilities, so I did the next best thing: VANILLA COCONUT. YUM.

Jenny made the BEST Glass noodle chicken stir fry something or another. I seriously could NOT stop eating it. oink oink.

This recipe is super simple and isn't composed of anything fancy except for maybe the coconut milk. In a well stocked kitchen, most ingredients I'm sure you'll have handy and if you don't have the coconut milk, you can use regular milk.... you'll just end up with Vanilla Cupcakes.

I'm blogging this mainly because Mimi gave the cupcakes the OK. Its gotta be half decent if Mimi gives the seal of approval right? Feed back seemed especially positive regarding the frosting, which is nothing more then a simple egg white + sugar + cream of tartar frosting. The frosting was almost of a fluff like consistency: sugary, sticky, gooey goodness! If you have ever had royal icing and wish that there was a light and fluffy form of it, well, this would be it!

The cake itself is light-ish, and has a very subtle coconut flavor. It's also super time sensitive. I accidentally stopped paying attention and left them in about 1 or 2 minutes too long and they came out slightly dry, so as soon as that top looks ready and the toothpick comes out clean, take those puppies OUT!

Vanilla Coconut Cupcakes

ingredients

for cake
1 stick (8 tblspn) butter softened
1 c white sugar
3 lrg eggs

2.5c AP flour
1.5 tsp b. powder
.5 tsp b. soda
.5 tsp salt

.5 c coconut milk (or whole milk)
.5 c vegetable oil
1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1 c coconut shavings, optional


instructions
1. preheat oven to 350F, line cupcake pans with paper liners

2. in your mixer, beat together butter and sugar, about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy

3. in a separate bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients

4. in another bowl, mix together all wet ingredients, except for the eggs

4. into the mixer, beat in one egg at a time, beating well after each egg. Don't forget to scrap down the sides between egg addition.

5. in an alternating fashion (and mixing well between additions) add 1/3 dry ingredients, 1/2 wet ingredients, 1/3 dry ingredients, rest of wet ingredients, rest of dry ingredients (starting and ending with dry ingredients).

6. Your batter should be light, fluffy and quite airy at this point. Spoon in to pans until 2/3rds full.

7. Bake 15-18 minutes until slightly golden brown and cake tester (ie toothpick) comes out clean.

8. let cool on wire rack, then proceed to ice with Icing and top off with coconut shavings if desired.

makes about 24 regular sized cupcakes or 12 regular ones and 6 big ones

Vanilla Sugar Icing

ingredients
2 lrg egg whites
1 c white sugar
2 tblspn light corn syrup
2 tblspn water
.25 tsp cream of tartar
1.5 tsp vanilla extract


instructions
1. fill a pot with about 1 inch of water and heat until simmering.

2. in a heat tolerant bowl, whisk together all ingredients. (see end note)

3. place bowl over pot (but don't let it touch the water!) and whisk until the mixture temperature reaches 160F, this will ensure all bacteria have been killed off. Using a hand mixer, beat over the simmering water until you get a nice and fluffy frosting, voila! finished!


NOTE If you are like me, and do not have a hand mixer but instead a stand mixer (I know, that is reverse of how it should be), you can heat up your mixture in your mixer bowl and as long as it reaches the 160F for 15-20 seconds, you can remove from the heat and beat your sugar mixture into frosting that way.

yields about 3.5 cups frosting